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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Marriage Isn't For You

Stop it with the rebuttals!

Most everyone in the Facebook, Twitter, and iEverything world has probably by now seen "Marriage Isn't For You" by Seth Adam Smith. It seems that with this post, everyone has a rebuttal about how it is wrong: from saying marriage isn't about other people, but about glorifying God to the post causing marriage problems in and of itself, because it places all the responsibility on one person's shoulders. Quite honestly, with these rebuttals, I feel that President Uchtdorf has a wonderful quote: "Stop it!"

All these rebuttals seem to not even look at the original premise of the post! Today's world is full of people who seem to feel that marriage is something that you just enter into for your own sexual and emotional enjoyment, and if it ceases to provide either of those, you can move on. "In the view of modern society, marriage has gone from a sacrament, to a commitment, to a convenience" (Dr. William J. Bennett).Because of that view of marriage, we have seen divorce rates soar and the family attacked from every hand. If every person took the advice to give more than they receive from their marriage, I am confident that the divorce rates would plummet, and people would actually come to taste the sweetness that comes with the age of the love.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he taught that "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay downhislife for hisfriends" (John 15:13). Marriage is all about laying down our life: our thoughts, our desires, our appetites for the one who should be our best friend: our spouse. If every person placed their spouse's needs ahead of their own, nobody would fall behind. People seem to fail to realize that Seth is talking to both men and women! If both the husband and the wife place each other's interests first, the world would change, and many more marriages would last!So, really, stop making rebuttals, and start making improvements.